Patience had been a problem for her in the preliminaries, and she was determined to overcome that problem February 5 on SS Scat Cat.

“The other day in the prelims, I was having trouble making it past that middle marker, and today my goal was to make it past my middle marker and not get penalties,” Amy said. “The cow pulled us, and I just – and once we hit the cow, ‘Cat’ turned.”

The cow squirted out, and Amy looped her back to the fence on the blaze-faced sorrel gelding.

“Then when I went back down the fence, normally, I would have set too soon, but I waited. I went down there, and that cow was right in my leg the second time. I like it like that!”

The judges did, too, and Amy is headed back to Sparta, Tennessee, with a world championship saddle.

It won’t be the only world championship title in the family. Amy’s husband, Paul, is a former NRCHA world champion, and her daughter, Korry, was the champion in working cow horse at the 2009 Built Ford Tough AQHYA World Championship Show. Read Korry’s story!

Larri Jo Starkey
AQHA managing editor of publications

Get back to the reined cow horse basics with AQHA’s Vaquero Horse Training Tips report. The late Bill Van Norman gives his timeless tips for training your horse to be a winner.